We’re barely into the infancy of Wimbledon 2017 but, on the evidence so far, I find it hard to look past the Czech Republic for the winner of the ladies’ singles.
And before I’m accused of any national bias, the reality right now is that Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova look the strongest two players on grass.
For the headline writers, Kvitova would be the dream win after everything she’s been through since that horrific attack.
I’m genuinely in awe of her, stepping on to court for her first match and not for a moment looking like she’d just had a six or seven-month lay-off with a career-threatening injury.
Wimbledon 2017 - In pictures
Right now, her game looks great - she’s pretty aggressive, she’s going for her shots and it looks like her game has come back quickly for her.
The caveat to that is that as a player you can get beaten up playing on grass, the body reacts differently and often gets a lot more sore so it’ll be interesting to see how a body that’s, for the most part, been rested off court reacts.
At this stage of the tournament, I don’t see that being a problem. In her first-round match against Johanna Larsson, the points were short which gives her body even more recovery time in competition.
But she looks so confident right now and part of that is down to the fact that she’s made huge sacrifices to get back and has quite possibly peaked at the right time. Some people have raised question marks about whether her body is ready for the rigours of a two-week Grand Slam with just a handful of games beforehand but the schedule of a game on, game off each day in the opening week is a bonus for her. Come week two that might be tricky, the body becomes more sore, the gap between the matches shorter — the prospect of three tough matches in four days.
Saying that, on current evidence I don’t necessarily think that she’ll struggle. What I thought was a potential stumbling block was the emotional hurdle to overcome but, from day one, she’s talked about the knife attack, laid it all out there in every interview she’s done and very much got rid of the emotion of it. That’s impressed me enormously.
She’s through the very worst of it in life and, for her, stepping on court probably feels like a piece of cake after everything she’s been through. Her winning would be the perfect ending to what began as a horrific moment but, while I think the winner will come from the Czech Republic, for me Pliskova is just the marginal favourite.
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There’s very different permutations for both players over the Wimbledon fortnight. For Pliskova, if results go her way she knows she has the potential to be crowned world No 1.
Depending on the players that can be a help or a hindrance but I’d imagine that’s an additional huge motivating factor for her as she goes through the rounds.
It’s not a concept she’ll remotely be thinking about right now but that seed could grow in her mind as the rounds go on.
There’s the very real potential for an all-Czech Republic final - not something I ever would have dreamt of even recently - and for me it’s one in which Pliskova marginally comes out on top.
